After what felt like forever, WordPress have finally released their new editor, Gutenberg. As a new block-based content editor, Gutenberg now allows users to build custom posts and pages without the need of an expert developer.
What is Gutenberg?
Named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of a printing press with movable type created 500 years ago, WordPress’ new editor is a great tool for building more engaging and attractive looking content within text/media rich areas of your website, such as blogs posts or content heavy pages.
The Gutenberg editor has been developed on GitHub using the WordPress REST API, Javascript, and React. It has been designed to help reduce the number of plug-ins required and create a clear, reliable and flexible way of using media and content.
The release of Gutenberg is apparently stage one of a three-pronged development of WordPress. After the success of Gutenberg, we’re excited to hear what else is on the way!
Blocks, blocks, blocks: building engaging content in WordPress
Whereas previously on WordPress content lived within one large HTML file with specified code, Gutenberg now introduces ‘blocks’ for publishers to use.
With blocks, you can now insert, rearrange, and style multimedia content without needing to be a coding expert. Insteadyou can now determine what every part of your content is and define the specifications of each regarding layout and settings. These can even be saved as ‘Reusable blocks’ for consistency or to create a template for other posts. There are blocks for:
- Headings
- Paragraphs
- Lists and Columns
- Quotes
- Images and Galleries
- Buttons
- Widgets
- Embeds and Shortcodes
How do blocks in Gutenberg affect the SEO of content?
Thankfully, Gutenberg has been developed under the watchful eye of the Yoast SEO plugin developers so that marketers and content creators no longer need to worry about how Gutenberg may impact their digital writing.
The Yoast plugin should still look and operate in the same way, with the exception of there being a Yoast sidebar on the right-hand side. As with all digital writing, make sure you still consider your SEO basics within your content blocks by making use of your h1 and h2 tags, image names, and alt texts etc.
Storm website builds and the Gutenberg WordPress editor
The majority of front-end websites created by Storm are built with a WordPress CMS. This means that existing and new build websites should be using Gutenberg from now on.
We believe Gutenberg is a great new asset for website content creators and should ultimately make your life much easier. The blocks concept has been designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, and hopefully motivate users to be more creative with their content.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding Gutenberg within your website, please do not hesitate to drop us line via hello@stormconsultancy.com and we’ll be happy to help.
